The present invention relates generally to distributed computing systems for use in the carrying out of educational exercises and, more particularly, to a system and method for enabling examinations. In one aspect, the invention provides a system and method for enabling examinees to sit examinations in a controlled manner while they may be physically distant from the classroom, or to enable examinees to receive and/or submit other educational exercises.
Interactive computer systems enabling information to be exchanged between students/examinees and teachers/examiners have been available for some time (sometimes referred to as the xe2x80x9celectronic classroomxe2x80x9d). Resources such as the Internet can be used with such systems for assisting in giving lectures, setting exercises and submitting answers in response. Administrators can use such systems to provide feedback to teachers to aid in evaluation and suggested improvement. In setting examinations, homework and other exercises, an Internet-based computer system can be used to deliver a computerized exercise to the examinee at a workstation, and receive and record the examinee""s responses during the test or when submitted by the examinee on expiry of a time limit. The computer system can be used in evaluating responses, marking multiple choice papers, delivering prompts and results to examinees, etc.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a new method and system for enabling examinations.
The present invention provides, in a first aspect, a method of enabling examinations, the method including the steps of:
providing a user involved in an examination exercise with an exercise form containing coded data indicative of an identity of the exercise form and of at least one reference point of the exercise form;
receiving, in a computer system, response data from a sensing device operable by said user, said data regarding the identity of the exercise form and a position of the sensing device relative to the exercise form, the sensing device, when placed in an operative position relative to the exercise form, sensing the coded data and providing said response data from said coded data.
According to the invention in a second aspect, there is provided a method of enabling examinations, the method including the steps of:
providing a user involved in an examination exercise with an exercise form containing information relating to the examination exercise and including coded data indicative of at least one parameter of the examination exercise;
receiving, in a computer system, data from a sensing device operable by said user, said data regarding said at least one parameter and regarding movement of the sensing device relative to the exercise form, the sensing device, when moved relative to the exercise form, sensing the data regarding said at least one parameter using at least some of the coded data and generating the data regarding its own movement relative to the exercise form;
interpreting, in the computer system, said movement of the sensing device as it relates to said at least one parameter.
According to the invention in a third aspect, there is provided a method of enabling examinations, the method including the steps of:
providing a user involved in an examination exercise with an exercise form including coded data indicative of an identity of the exercise form;
receiving, in a computer system, data from a sensing device regarding an identity of the user and regarding the identity of the exercise form, the sensing device containing the data regarding the identity of the user and sensing the data regarding the identity of the exercise form using at least some of the coded data; and
identifying, in the computer system and from the data regarding the identity of the user and the identity of the exercise form, an examination activity.
According to the invention in a fourth aspect, there is provided a system for enabling examinations, the system including:
at least one exercise form containing coded data indicative of an identity of the exercise form and of at least one reference point of the exercise form;
a computer system for receiving response data from a sensing device operated by a user involved in an examination exercise, said data regarding the identity of the exercise form and a position of the sensing device relative to the exercise form, the sensing device, when placed in an operative position relative to the exercise form, sensing the coded data and providing said response data from said coded data.
According to the invention in a fifth aspect, there is provided a system for enabling examinations, the system including at least one exercise containing information relating to an examination exercise, the exercise form including coded data indicative of at least one parameter of the examination exercise; and
a computer system for receiving data from a sensing device operated by a user involved in the examination exercise, said data regarding said at least one parameter and regarding movement of the sensing device relative to the exercise form, for interpreting said movement of the sensing device as it relates to said at least one parameter, the sensing device, when moved relative to the exercise form, sensing the data regarding said at least one parameter using at least some of the coded data and generating the data regarding its own movement relative to the exercise form.
According to the invention in a sixth aspect, there is provided a system for enabling examination, the system including at least one exercise form including coded data indicative of an identity of the exercise form; and
a computer system for receiving from a sensing device data regarding an identity of a user involved in an examination exercise and the identity of the exercise form, and for identifying, from said received data, an examination activity, the sensing device containing the data regarding the identity of the user and sensing the data regarding the identity of the exercise form using at least some of the coded data.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a system and a method which utilizes one or more forms capable of interacting with a computer system. Whilst the novel method and system of the present invention may be used in conjunction with a single computer system, in a particularly preferred form it is designed to operate over a computer network, such as the Internet.
Physically, the form is disposed on a surface medium which may be of any suitable structure. However, in a preferred embodiment, the form is disposed on sheet material such as paper or the like which has the coded data printed on it and which allows interaction with the computer system. The coded data is detectable preferably, but not exclusively, outside the visible spectrum, thereby enabling it to be machine-readable but substantially invisible to the human eye. The form may also include visible material which provides information to a user, such as the application or purpose of the form, and which visible information may be registered or correlate in position with the relevant hidden coded data.
The system also includes a sensing device to convey data from the form to the computer system, and in some instances, to contribute additional data. Again, the sensing device may take a variety of forms but is preferably compact and easily portable. In a particularly preferred arrangement, the sensing device is configured as a pen which is designed to be able to physically mark the interactive form as well as to selectively enable the coded data from the form to be read and transmitted to the computer system. The coded data then provides control information, configured such that designation thereof by a user causes instructions to be applied to the software running on the computer system or network.
The nature of the interaction between the form and the sensing device and the data that each contributes to the computer system may vary. In one arrangement, the coded data on the form is indicative of the identity of the form and of at least one reference point on that form. In another embodiment, the interactive form includes coded data which is indicative of a parameter of the form, whereas the sensing device is operative to provide data regarding its own movement relative to that form to the computer system together with coded data from the form. In yet another arrangement, the form includes the coded data which at least identifies the form, and the sensing device is designed to provide, to the computer system, data based on the form coded data, and also on data which identifies the user of the device.
In a preferred arrangement, the system and method also employs specially designed printers to print the interactive form. Further these printers constitute or form part of the computer system and are designed to receive data from the sensing device. As indicated above, the system and method of the invention is ideally suited to operate over a network. In this arrangement, the printers are fully integrated into the network and allow for printing of the interactive forms on demand and also for distributing of the forms using a mixture of multi-cast and point-cast communication protocols.
Accordingly, in a preferred form, the present invention provides methods and systems which use a paper and pen based interface for a computer system. This provides many significant benefits over traditional computer systems. The advantage of paper is that it is widely used to display and record information. Further, printed information is easier to read than information displayed on a computer screen. Moreover, paper does not run on batteries, can be read in bright light, or robustly accepts coffee spills or the like and is portable and disposable. Furthermore, the system allows for hand-drawing and hand-writing to be captured which affords greater richness of expression than input via a computer keyboard and mouse.
The present invention therefore provides a system and method for enabling examinations, making use of novel interactive surface media. It is to be understood in this specification and claims that the term xe2x80x9cexaminationsxe2x80x9d is to be understood to embrace various types of educational exercises, which may be selected from a wide range of forms of study and testing activity, such as setting and recording a student""s homework tasks, performing skills evaluation testing, enabling students to sit real time examinations, etc.
By means of the invention, for example, an examination paper can be delivered at a specific time to a distributed collection of students, for example in a classroom situation or at separate individual test sites, each student""s paper provided with an interactive surface and each student having or being provided with a sensing device for interacting with the interactive surface. Each examinee is then required to answer the questions on the paper within an allotted time. The examination paper may take the format of a multiple selection paper, a free response paper or a combination of the two, and the system of the invention can be utilized in the administration of the examination.
A multiple selection examination paper requires the selection by the examinee of one or more available choices from a list of responses to a question set, and the system of the invention may include means to enable automatic grading of such papers.
A free response examination paper allows the input of numeric expressions, values or text. The system may employ text conversion to allow the system to evaluate the response automatically, and unrecognized input can be routed to a human operator (an examiner or administrator).
Homework or other private study tasks can be distributed and captured in a similar manner.